Under Minnesota state law, all license plate reader data is public by default.

A Minneapolis municipal committee is now advocating on behalf of local police for a change in Minnesota’s state law concerning the right to access data collected from license plate readers (LPRs). For now, the city maintains a massive database collected from its 11 LPR readers that hold each license plate number seen, along with the corresponding GPS location data, date, and time for the previous 90 days.

In a meeting Thursday, the Committee of the Whole Agenda heard discussions regarding a new proposal from the city police department that would restrict access to license plate reader records. Under the proposed rules, only the police would have access to the entire database, and a non-police individual would only be able to access the data that pertained to his or her car. Currently, a rather liberal open records state law known as the Data Practices Act makes all government data public by default. If approved by the Minneapolis city council, such changes could be put forward to the state legislature as soon as next year.

As we reported earlier this year, license plate readers are largely on an unchecked rise throughout the United States. Millions of new records are collected by law enforcement agencies on a daily basis, often with little oversight.

Pending requests for the entire 2.5 million record database

The new proposal comes after increased scrutiny over the practice in Minneapolis, after a local reporter managed to track the mayor’s movements in August 2012 by filing a request with the police.

"We do have a concern of the way the data could be used," Sgt. William Palmer, the public information officer for the Minneapolis Police Department, told Ars.

"I don't know that as of yet we've had a case where someone misused the information—but taking proactive steps to prevent a stalking case or a domestic violence case where a partner was able to figure out where their previous partner's vehicle was located is a concern to us."

He added that there were currently five requests—including from university researchers—pending for the entire database of 2.5 million records. Under the law, anyone, regardless of whether they’re a city or state resident, can file such a request. The department continues to get approximately four requests on individual plates per week.

One local privacy activist, Rich Neumeister, told Ars that he’s long been against the collection and 90-day retention period. But, he said, it should be all or nothing—either no one should have access to the data to begin with (not even the police), or it should be open for everyone to scrutinize.

"If it is public, people can see patterns, people can start asking questions, whatever it may be, of the mayor or anybody," he said. "If the state is going to keep it for a long period of time, I believe then the public has a right for public accountability and transparency."

Promoted Comments

Letting it all go public and have it be searchable by individual plates would be a huge problem. Crime rates would soar as cheaters would be hard pressed as to why they were on the other side of town when they were supposed to be in the third late meeting that week instead. Homicide and domestic violence rates would certainly go up because of this, as well as blackmail.

I know I would check the license plates of everyone I knew, just because I could and it may reveal interesting information. Here is a good example: 8 mile, which many may be familiar with, is the northern boundary of the city of Detroit. It is also 9 times out of 10 the line white suburbanites must cross when they go to pick up their heroin, which in my area is like a rampant plague. It is so well known that local police who spot white drivers crossing this boundary at night often times track them and try to catch them once they come north again and have crossed 8 mile. You could check that database and match the plates that appear to be from Oakland or Macomb county that cross it after dark, and be fairly certain they are in some way participating in the illegal drug trade. There are very few reasons white people cross that line after dark that don't involve this. I'm not being racist, I am telling you the truth.

You might think there wouldn't be a reason to blackmail these types, and you would be wrong. Many people you would not expect dabble in things like heroin and cocaine in both it's forms. I have known police, lawyers, and a judge who did this over the course of about a decade. Not to mention that some of the teenagers and young adults who go down there are children of important community figures. This is just one example of where blackmail would have an opportunity to increase.

Honestly, there is no good reason in my mind for this information to exist for anyone to be able to access, including law enforcement. The reasons I have provided for public restriction trump any other argument I can think of for it, and perhaps a 24 hour window can be argued for law enforcement, but outside of that, this seems like it would provide too much power to anyone willing to take the time to look into it. You can bet your bottom dollar criminals could and would use this to their advantage.

You think it would be wise to let criminals know where those vehicles are? What patterns they follow?

This isn't a real time information system. You need to submit a form that requires a plate number, time frame, and your identity to get the information. Criminals could easily get the same information just by tailing patrol cars, but they don't because the information isn't really that useful because cars don't take the same route every time they patrol an area.

First of all there is a database, I don't know if the FOIA applies, but 5 entities have already requested the entire thing. If someone or something can get it like that it can fall into the wrong hands.

Secondly, you would be surprised about how police are known to operate. I know for a fact from personal, shall we say, "adventures" of my youth that police, especially at night, operate with a clear pattern at certain times. Once you know for example that a squad car is going to be at X location at a certain time, then travel to Y location, it gives you the window you need for whatever nefarious deeds you are up to. This kind of information can aid in finding these patterns without as much time spent in the area you want to commit a crime, which is obviously a risk increase.

It still isn't wise to tail a police cruiser however. Police are not as stupid or as oblivious as they are often thought to be. It is their job to notice things out of the ordinary, and if they noticed you were in fact tailing them, be assured they will be stopping you at a minimum.

Then there is the fact that a smart criminal who wants to commit a crime will do it away from where he lives. Since he does not want to be seen and recognized in that area, and traveling to and from that area in itself would create a pattern of his own, using this as a way to reduce that is a valid option. The smart criminal would know that if he can use it, so can the police. This way you can be in, out, and on your way, even taking routes that you know if you were to be plate captured, that plate capture would be furthest from the scene, giving police even less to go on with this technology.

This theory might seem far-fetched to you, but I believe it could happen.

Mr. Neumeister's all or nothing approach to openness is admirable and a good starting point, but - if only because his is a losing argument - we should consider what circumstances should be required for the state to keep this information secret.

A theoretical possibility of harm should not be enough, the state should have to allow the data to be public for enough time to measure it's actual impact. Then, in order to balance that danger verses the danger of police-misuse, the state should have to demonstrate policies and procedures (and proof of their implementation) which makes it virtually impossible for the sate to use the information on a level as improper as the public would.

Unless the state can prove it would be better custodians than the people, we should go to Mr. Neumeister's position.

Ignoring the larger question about should license plate tracking be done. I think that it is reasonable to say that as a city resident you "own" every city, county and state vehicle. Therefore those should be visible to you (and by extension everyone)

Letting it all go public and have it be searchable by individual plates would be a huge problem. Crime rates would soar as cheaters would be hard pressed as to why they were on the other side of town when they were supposed to be in the third late meeting that week instead. Homicide and domestic violence rates would certainly go up because of this, as well as blackmail.

I know I would check the license plates of everyone I knew, just because I could and it may reveal interesting information. Here is a good example: 8 mile, which many may be familiar with, is the northern boundary of the city of Detroit. It is also 9 times out of 10 the line white suburbanites must cross when they go to pick up their heroin, which in my area is like a rampant plague. It is so well known that local police who spot white drivers crossing this boundary at night often times track them and try to catch them once they come north again and have crossed 8 mile. You could check that database and match the plates that appear to be from Oakland or Macomb county that cross it after dark, and be fairly certain they are in some way participating in the illegal drug trade. There are very few reasons white people cross that line after dark that don't involve this. I'm not being racist, I am telling you the truth.

You might think there wouldn't be a reason to blackmail these types, and you would be wrong. Many people you would not expect dabble in things like heroin and cocaine in both it's forms. I have known police, lawyers, and a judge who did this over the course of about a decade. Not to mention that some of the teenagers and young adults who go down there are children of important community figures. This is just one example of where blackmail would have an opportunity to increase.

Honestly, there is no good reason in my mind for this information to exist for anyone to be able to access, including law enforcement. The reasons I have provided for public restriction trump any other argument I can think of for it, and perhaps a 24 hour window can be argued for law enforcement, but outside of that, this seems like it would provide too much power to anyone willing to take the time to look into it. You can bet your bottom dollar criminals could and would use this to their advantage.

Ignoring the larger question about should license plate tracking be done. I think that it is reasonable to say that as a city resident you "own" every city, county and state vehicle. Therefore those should be visible to you (and by extension everyone)

You think it would be wise to let criminals know where those vehicles are? What patterns they follow?

The argument used by police for automated license plate scanners is the information is already public and there is no expectation of privacy while a car is moving down the highway visible to hundreds. This just allows them to automate what police officers are already able to do.

If this information is truly 'public' why should it not be viewable by the public? We would rather the government know everywhere we travel than our neighbors?

I know I would check the license plates of everyone I knew, just because I could and it may reveal interesting information. Here is a good example: 8 mile, which many may be familiar with, is the northern boundary of the city of Detroit. It is also 9 times out of 10 the line white suburbanites must cross when they go to pick up their heroin, which in my area is like a rampant plague. It is so well known that local police who spot white drivers crossing this boundary at night often times track them and try to catch them once they come north again and have crossed 8 mile. You could check that database and match the plates that appear to be from Oakland or Macomb county that cross it after dark, and be fairly certain they are in some way participating in the illegal drug trade. There are very few reasons white people cross that line after dark that don't involve this. I'm not being racist, I am telling you the truth.

You realize you actually have to submit a form to get the information right? The form requires you to include a time frame and plate number. For that amount of work, I'm surprised you aren't already tossing cheap GPS trackers on all of your friends' cars.

You think it would be wise to let criminals know where those vehicles are? What patterns they follow?

This isn't a real time information system. You need to submit a form that requires a plate number, time frame, and your identity to get the information. Criminals could easily get the same information just by tailing patrol cars, but they don't because the information isn't really that useful because cars don't take the same route every time they patrol an area.

You think it would be wise to let criminals know where those vehicles are? What patterns they follow?

This isn't a real time information system. You need to submit a form that requires a plate number, time frame, and your identity to get the information. Criminals could easily get the same information just by tailing patrol cars, but they don't because the information isn't really that useful because cars don't take the same route every time they patrol an area.

First of all there is a database, I don't know if the FOIA applies, but 5 entities have already requested the entire thing. If someone or something can get it like that it can fall into the wrong hands.

Secondly, you would be surprised about how police are known to operate. I know for a fact from personal, shall we say, "adventures" of my youth that police, especially at night, operate with a clear pattern at certain times. Once you know for example that a squad car is going to be at X location at a certain time, then travel to Y location, it gives you the window you need for whatever nefarious deeds you are up to. This kind of information can aid in finding these patterns without as much time spent in the area you want to commit a crime, which is obviously a risk increase.

It still isn't wise to tail a police cruiser however. Police are not as stupid or as oblivious as they are often thought to be. It is their job to notice things out of the ordinary, and if they noticed you were in fact tailing them, be assured they will be stopping you at a minimum.

Then there is the fact that a smart criminal who wants to commit a crime will do it away from where he lives. Since he does not want to be seen and recognized in that area, and traveling to and from that area in itself would create a pattern of his own, using this as a way to reduce that is a valid option. The smart criminal would know that if he can use it, so can the police. This way you can be in, out, and on your way, even taking routes that you know if you were to be plate captured, that plate capture would be furthest from the scene, giving police even less to go on with this technology.

This theory might seem far-fetched to you, but I believe it could happen.

"Perhaps the best known incident involving the abuse of an ANPR database in North America is the case of Edmonton Sun reporter Kerry Diotte in 2004. Diotte wrote an article critical of Edmonton police use of traffic cameras for revenue enhancement, and in retaliation was added to an ANPR database of "high-risk drivers" in an attempt to monitor his habits and create an opportunity to arrest him. The police chief and several officers were fired as a result, and The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada expressed public concern over the "growing police use of technology to spy on motorists."

In regards to this data being used to track individual police cars, as seen in the picture, in Minneapolis police cars all have the same license plate number: "POLICE". There's really no argument for or against related to tracking police cars.

This just seems like another case of police wanting to gather data about people and keep it secret, because police the world over like gathering data on people and they like keeping it secret.

We need a website live map, detailing which roads each police cruiser is going down as a dot on Google Maps, being updated from cameras installed by citizens to traffic lights ... all so that crowds can be warned about a specific officer approaching or looking for confrontation. That is at least a service to the community. Otherwise, they are attempting to investigate a crime where none exists, looking for excuses to turn people into criminals through attempts that predict behavior based on their location.

There is no way I would vote for something like that, so I am not being represented appropriately, nor are my grievances being redressed.

He added that there were currently five requests—including from university researchers—pending for the entire database of 2.5 million records. Under the law, anyone, regardless whether they’re a city or state resident, can file such a request. The department continues to get approximately four requests on individual plates per week.

I think everyone here should go put in a request - just to mess with the systemn some more. And why stop at the mayor - lets track the folks teracking us and publicize the hell out of the data - mkae it more difficult for law enforcement to do their jobs and they might just get the point that just because a technology is possibel does not mean that it shoul be used.

Then again - not sure why folks would have their panties in a bunch about the data being public information when most people with cell phones these days have GPS and location data fed live onto the Internet anyway thru dozens of services and websites.

Data like this shoudl be secured by what we used to refer to as multi-party passwords. The data is colelcted in a secure system, and NOONE has access to that data without court order or due authority. Access is a system where the only admin account that can do anything other than pull a single record based on a single request through a UI (if that's even necessary), is secured by making a very complex password, then breaking that code into 3 pieces, and giving it to 3 people who lock it under key. Under confirmed authoritative order (warrant), all 3 come together and key in their part of the password, and then all 3 watch the records requested be pulled and log out. At least one of the 3 is not affiliated with the department over that system at all.

This is how databases are secured for one firm i worked for. End-users can only see a single record at a time, and have to enter 3 peices of confirming information to access any private data, and every access attempt is logged and reported. They can't do a search, they have to enter 3 piences of data and then it only shows the applical record. Anyone wanting reports, dumps, or the entire database needs to go through a multi-party verification process.

For something like this, confirming the license plate location at some tie range shoudl be done by judicial request only (not necessaarily a warrant, just a bench order), and the record number of that request, who requested it, and a case ID would have to be entered, along with the plate number and registered owner name, then it would present records on only that time/place/plate. If they want a "historical" record (spanning more than a few hours), then a warrant is needed, and 3 people have to enter the data. Of course, this also needs to be a 3 tier data architecture in a secure enclave, and the physical server and database itself need to also be secured, as do all the backups, and 100% auditing of all access and information would be understood.

in order to secure the password pieces in case someone is killed accidentally or terminated and refuses to hand over their passkey part, those passkeys are documented, sealed in envelopes, and each one is given to a seperate legal authority which can only hand over the original on judicial order. This prevents someone holding the database itself "hostage" by refusing to give their key up.

I've seen this used in many places where highly secure information is kept. it could easily be applied to government data.

The argument used by police for automated license plate scanners is the information is already public and there is no expectation of privacy while a car is moving down the highway visible to hundreds. This just allows them to automate what police officers are already able to do.

If this information is truly 'public' why should it not be viewable by the public? We would rather the government know everywhere we travel than our neighbors?

Actually, yes.

See, the governmet has rules, auditable access logs, something called DUE PROCESS. Your neighbors do not.

A cop only wants this data so they can collaborate or disprove an aliby. The Public would want this information to know when someone wasn't home so they could rob them.

Imaging for a minute my wife pulling these records, and finding out I told her a white lie about where I was going to be at some point in time while I was out across town shopping for a super-secret aniversary gift months in advance to disuade suspicion. All of a sudden my covert plan becomes the thing that springs distrust and argument, and god forbid i might have made that trip and come home without said gift or proof otherwise and suddenly I'll be labled a cheater, maybe even end up in a domestic dispute, but at best my surprise is shattered.

Other people who already have these seeds of distrust (a good friend of mine is labled a cheater every single time his phone runs and she doens't know the number, and he's never once even considered the idea. The fact his office even hired a reasonably attractive femal ended up with him being seperated for a week from her, someone she swore up and down he personally hired because of her "tits", yet in fact working his road job, he'd never even met her until her second week of employment. This poor guy, working on the road all day, he'd be divorved in a second if his wife had any clue at to where and when we was driving, all it would take is one canceled appointment or one emergency call that wasn't on his cellendar, something she checks, and he'd be in the shit. Poor guy loves his two kids, and though he at this point basically SHOULD leave, he won't to just keep the family together until they're in college.).

Access to this type of information by distrusting people, and the general public, crimionals, and nosy neighbors? Look, Maybe there are a few dirty cops who might abuse access (if it wasn;t already strictly audited), but even they know if they get cuaght checking a plate on a freidn's cheating wife, its not just that they lose their job, they can never be a copy anywhere else again, lose their pension, likely go to jail, cost the city hundreds of thousands of taxpyer dolars in a lawsuit if not millions, and all that cops cases come up for review on appeal that he was a states witness in and could cause dozens of real criminals to be released. They have NO desire to do that, but if it;s public, and unaudited, ALL the bad people WILL use this, and it will be bad.

The government haviong data is not evil, so long as it is secured and audited (it is, trust me, I do system architecture for private and public alike, local state and federal). We have rules, regulations, and penalties for this reason. joe public is who we need to keep out if it, not the people we already did background checks on that have something to lose if they break the rules.

The concern is not that someone could come up with a nefarious use for such a wide-ranging collection of data, it is whether non-investigation related, non-secret data collected by the government should be released to the public. If the police (or any other government agency) can browse this data that is not limited to information regarding current government actions or criminal investigations, then why can't citizens? If there is no intrusion for a police officer to monitor the activity of hundreds of thousands of cars, then why would there be an intrusion for a PhD student to write a paper about the network patterns that are detected? Or conversely, if the wholesale tracking of vehicles driven by innocent people is an invasion of privacy then why would we allow the government to do it?

Ignoring the larger question about should license plate tracking be done. I think that it is reasonable to say that as a city resident you "own" every city, county and state vehicle. Therefore those should be visible to you (and by extension everyone)

OK, sure. Just provide a reason to access the information and acknowledge that your access request is audited. Same as the cop has to do to look up your plate.

But, that still does not mean the REST of the data shoudl be public...

My city does the following: We have cop cars with cameras on the rear hood. They scan passing plates. The data is looked up in real time and flags those who have :expired tax stickers, outstanding warrants, and stolen vehicle alerts. The data is NOT stored, it is only displayed on screen. In order to clear the screen, the cop has to call it in (forcing him to persue targeted vehicles without predudice, and also confirming he's doing his job). They move these vehicles around same as they do DUI checkpoints or tag checks. The information is colelcts ANY cop can do with their in-car PC, but it means they can do so without taking their eyes off the road at all.

I got pulled over by one. My tax tag had expeired. A warning ticket and a 10-days-to-pay order, and I was on the go again. I pay my tags, but I apparently never got the bill this time (and having a van with an auto-opening rar door, I haven't laid eyes on my plate in ages, didn;t notice the sticker was 2 months out of date). now the city got the money it needed (and was due), without having to suspend my license or cause me undue financial harm. Had I been in a stolen car, or been targeted by an amber alert, or had an outstanding warrant, I'd have been in trouble, but, even more important, that cop could easily call for backup BEFORE pulling me over knowing the nature of my crime instead of pulling me over for some random traffic stop, and then getting shot at while he's pulling up my tag manually (as has happened here several times in the last few years, promting the deployment of such a system). Apparently they're deploying a similar system at key intersections tied to dispatch so they can issue an instant order to go get a car if it passes a chekpoint (which they swear will only be used for active warrants and public threat alerts, never tax collection that any officer can do on any day already).

A side effect of this system has also been an uptake in drievrs being insured. Our DMV knows if YOU are uninsured (as tied to your license), but not the car. They'll know if you didn;t pay your taxes by IDing the sticker or running the plate, but it;s not until they get to the car they find out you're uninsured. We have MASSIVE numebrs of uninsured drivers (we're in the top 5 oper capita natiobally all the time), but now that cops are pulling over a LOT more cars for tag violations most cops used to ignore, insurance checks are becoming more common, and people DO get arrested for driving uninsured in this state, and the news has been hammering that, so insurance likelyhood being up in 2012, my insurance company just lowered my rates this pass, and cited that exact reason. I'm totally fine with any kind of non-discrininatory automated enforcement like this. I have to follow the laws and paym, so shoudl everyone else, and finding non-payers easily is fine by me.

The concern is not that someone could come up with a nefarious use for such a wide-ranging collection of data, it is whether non-investigation related, non-secret data collected by the government should be released to the public. If the police (or any other government agency) can browse this data that is not limited to information regarding current government actions or criminal investigations, then why can't citizens? If there is no intrusion for a police officer to monitor the activity of hundreds of thousands of cars, then why would there be an intrusion for a PhD student to write a paper about the network patterns that are detected? Or conversely, if the wholesale tracking of vehicles driven by innocent people is an invasion of privacy then why would we allow the government to do it?

But see, the governemtn CAN'T just share this data. It's called DUE PROCESS. They have to DOCUMENT a REASON to need it, and for a specific thing at a specific time range. They can't just take this datnd troll it looking for violations because it IS private data protected by federal laws against that kind of analysis. Even if they did do it, that data is instantly inadmissible in courts.

A cop can't monitor cars, they can pull A record on A car. Also, that cop has gone through background checks, data access rules training, etics testing, and has something to loose (not just a job, but pension and potentially freedom) if the data is not used according to the law. Joe Public has no such protections against using the data that way. That's why it's not OK for it to be shared. That's NOT saying we do not need oversight, audit of the process, and audit logs for all access, but those things are in place, its the law for them to be.

This is a perfect case of how the government should NOT be using technology at their whim. If they want it, they should ask and provide a judge legal reasosn to get that info.... or if you are a felon. Similar to a search warrant. Every day joe blow should be protected.

Ignoring the larger question about should license plate tracking be done. I think that it is reasonable to say that as a city resident you "own" every city, county and state vehicle. Therefore those should be visible to you (and by extension everyone)

OK, sure. Just provide a reason to access the information and acknowledge that your access request is audited. Same as the cop has to do to look up your plate.

But, that still does not mean the REST of the data shoudl be public...

My city does the following: We have cop cars with cameras on the rear hood. They scan passing plates. The data is looked up in real time and flags those who have :expired tax stickers, outstanding warrants, and stolen vehicle alerts. The data is NOT stored, it is only displayed on screen. In order to clear the screen, the cop has to call it in (forcing him to persue targeted vehicles without predudice, and also confirming he's doing his job). They move these vehicles around same as they do DUI checkpoints or tag checks. The information is colelcts ANY cop can do with their in-car PC, but it means they can do so without taking their eyes off the road at all.

I got pulled over by one. My tax tag had expeired. A warning ticket and a 10-days-to-pay order, and I was on the go again. I pay my tags, but I apparently never got the bill this time (and having a van with an auto-opening rar door, I haven't laid eyes on my plate in ages, didn;t notice the sticker was 2 months out of date). now the city got the money it needed (and was due), without having to suspend my license or cause me undue financial harm. Had I been in a stolen car, or been targeted by an amber alert, or had an outstanding warrant, I'd have been in trouble, but, even more important, that cop could easily call for backup BEFORE pulling me over knowing the nature of my crime instead of pulling me over for some random traffic stop, and then getting shot at while he's pulling up my tag manually (as has happened here several times in the last few years, promting the deployment of such a system). Apparently they're deploying a similar system at key intersections tied to dispatch so they can issue an instant order to go get a car if it passes a chekpoint (which they swear will only be used for active warrants and public threat alerts, never tax collection that any officer can do on any day already).

A side effect of this system has also been an uptake in drievrs being insured. Our DMV knows if YOU are uninsured (as tied to your license), but not the car. They'll know if you didn;t pay your taxes by IDing the sticker or running the plate, but it;s not until they get to the car they find out you're uninsured. We have MASSIVE numebrs of uninsured drivers (we're in the top 5 oper capita natiobally all the time), but now that cops are pulling over a LOT more cars for tag violations most cops used to ignore, insurance checks are becoming more common, and people DO get arrested for driving uninsured in this state, and the news has been hammering that, so insurance likelyhood being up in 2012, my insurance company just lowered my rates this pass, and cited that exact reason. I'm totally fine with any kind of non-discrininatory automated enforcement like this. I have to follow the laws and paym, so shoudl everyone else, and finding non-payers easily is fine by me.

Here's a prime example of the system being abused by local governments. At no time should the Police have access to your tax records, all they should be able to do is verify the plate is current and whether or not the car is stolen, ANYTHING above that is an illegal intrusion into my life and I don't want the Police, who unlike most I trust, having access to unnecessary data. To get any pertinent information the Police have to run my license to get insurance verification and whether or not I'm wanted

We've already given up more than enough freedom the last few years, I resent giving up any more for the semblance of security or safety, let the Police do their jobs properly, it's what they get paid to do

Couldn't have said it better by myself. I think 24 hours is reasonable for law enforcement, but anything other than that is blatantly wrong and "1984"esque. And even then, I think Amber alerts are the only one we should be doing it for (I think I read some where that the first 24 hours is what really matters in tracking down people like this, I could be wrong), anything else should just take good old fashioned detective work. I think that's the real question as far as law enforcement, work. Making it easy for them shouldn't be our top priority when conflicting with our basic privacy rights.

The good thing about this story is that it has forced the issue into full public view, and now there is discussion about how it should work.

Ultimately I do not think the records should be public. I also think they should not be maintained for the full 90 days and there should be strict limits regarding who can access the records and under what circumstances, how that access is logged and how those logs are reviewed. But there would be no chance of those changes happening without the issue coming into full public view.

"Perhaps the best known incident involving the abuse of an ANPR database in North America is the case of Edmonton Sun reporter Kerry Diotte in 2004. Diotte wrote an article critical of Edmonton police use of traffic cameras for revenue enhancement, and in retaliation was added to an ANPR database of "high-risk drivers" in an attempt to monitor his habits and create an opportunity to arrest him. The police chief and several officers were fired as a result, and The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada expressed public concern over the "growing police use of technology to spy on motorists."

That's not all the police did. They staked out a bar and sent a detective in to watch Diotte and then-police commission chairman Martin Ignasiak, also viewed by police as 'hostile' to them in hopes of being able to arrest them for impaired driving. Subsequent legal proceedings produced evidence, including police radio conversations from that night, showing officers set up the operation because they were upset by Diotte's newspaper columns about policing.

The biggest abusers of this data will be the state, and individualpolice. Limits on access which fail to limit them are totallyinadequate.

However, even with limits on access, license plate readers will mean atremendous increase in surveillance of everyone in the US. The rightthing to do is to forbid license plate readers from even recognizing aplate unless it is in a court-ordered watch list. That way, they canbe used to track the targets of court-approved investigations, butcan't be used to track you and everyone you know.

Letting it all go public and have it be searchable by individual plates would be a huge problem. Crime rates would soar as cheaters would be hard pressed as to why they were on the other side of town when they were supposed to be in the third late meeting that week instead. Homicide and domestic violence rates would certainly go up because of this, as well as blackmail.

I know I would check the license plates of everyone I knew, just because I could and it may reveal interesting information. Here is a good example: 8 mile, which many may be familiar with, is the northern boundary of the city of Detroit. It is also 9 times out of 10 the line white suburbanites must cross when they go to pick up their heroin, which in my area is like a rampant plague. It is so well known that local police who spot white drivers crossing this boundary at night often times track them and try to catch them once they come north again and have crossed 8 mile. You could check that database and match the plates that appear to be from Oakland or Macomb county that cross it after dark, and be fairly certain they are in some way participating in the illegal drug trade. There are very few reasons white people cross that line after dark that don't involve this. I'm not being racist, I am telling you the truth.

You might think there wouldn't be a reason to blackmail these types, and you would be wrong. Many people you would not expect dabble in things like heroin and cocaine in both it's forms. I have known police, lawyers, and a judge who did this over the course of about a decade. Not to mention that some of the teenagers and young adults who go down there are children of important community figures. This is just one example of where blackmail would have an opportunity to increase.

Honestly, there is no good reason in my mind for this information to exist for anyone to be able to access, including law enforcement. The reasons I have provided for public restriction trump any other argument I can think of for it, and perhaps a 24 hour window can be argued for law enforcement, but outside of that, this seems like it would provide too much power to anyone willing to take the time to look into it. You can bet your bottom dollar criminals could and would use this to their advantage.

Edit- rogue letter "a"

So that is why when I was helping my son house hunt in the 10 Mile suburbs, a couple of times when I returned home southwards I was tailed all the way to the Interstate. I just figured they were bored those days.